This really installs on an European T2? (The file is identical to the one you can download from Sony's US website.)

I just installed the file the Sony software offered me to install (the location of the Sony software is set to US, however). My reader was bought in Germany and has that strange firmware restriction that does not allow me to select US as my region (and store).

It has kept this annoying restriction with the update (I only installed it because I hoped they'd changed their minds about that).

No. I don't see what difference it makes, though. Either I got the US version of the file (because of the region settings of the software) and it did install fine on my European T2 or I got a European version of the file because it checked the hardware.

In any case, I would've thought that you asked because you wanted, you know, to actually install the update (which, as I can confirm, works splendidly). And since you'd be happy with an .exe file, I'd say Windows isn't a big problem for you. You could even refuse to install the update and just grab the file from your download directory once the Sony software has downloaded it.